Advanced Warfare did what?! The Rhetoric. 5 November 2014.

Irons: “…unfortunately my appearance today has been clouded by a flurry of speculation that my company is developing a weapon of mass destruction which would be capable of targeting specific ethnic groups – I want to address these allegations head on. Are we developing such a weapon?
No we are not.
….because we’ve already developed it.”

Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons – per usual, the developers of Advanced Warfare opted for the “everything has gone to hell” approach to their story. Yet the selection of Kevin Spacey to do both motion-capture and voice-acting was one decision I am happy to see happen. The man did some excellent work with the dialogue available, and though there were those “that was expected” moments, overall Spacey performed well for a man whose only experience in voice-acting for video games was this recent title.

Now to summarize (and to deliver a big SPOILER ALERT), Spacey plays Jonathan Irons: a father who lost his son in war from an accident he deemed was “preventable.” Irons then recruits his son’s best friend (you), and you begin work at his PMC (Private Military Company) ATLAS Corporation. Long story shot, the typical: “PMC gains power and takes over like a crazed CEO” occurs, and the free world is left to take down Irons and his company who have also developed a bio-weapon that can kill people based on their genetic code. Thus the forces of the free world have to contend with not only highly trained PMCs, but also a weapon that – unless they have worked for ATLAS before defecting – can kill them due to their genetic material not existing in the data base. This bio-weapon does not harm Irons’ forces, but will slaughter the opposition – selective killing via natural forces per se.

Spacey was great with his dialogue. The cutscene where he drops the ball regarding his WMDs was similar to how Tony Stark approaches addressing the mass media in his speeches. Indeed Spacey delivered that segment with the same: “I just did this, what are you going to do” attitude as Tony Stark really brought this recent Call of Duty title to a whole new level. Sure with the addition of exoskeletons the multiplayer is brought to a whole new level – yet the campaign is where Spacey lives and breathes.

This is indeed a welcome sight to see: Call of Duty might finally enter a realm similar to Unreal Tournament but with a bit of a crossover with a pseudo Game of Thrones touch. Those looking for political intrigue with some popcorn action flick fun can look at Advanced Warfare, while those sick of the usual 360 no-scope/lead boots combat will be pleasantly surprised with the sudden shift to a more action-packed experience – jumping around a map (making use of height and distance) and shooting enemies is your new tactic.

Kevin Spacey good sir, you just entered into a whole new realm – one of infinite possibilities. This has been the writer for Thoughts and Topics, and I shall catch you next time.

One response to “Advanced Warfare did what?! The Rhetoric. 5 November 2014.”

I would like to see a game ride on the wings of its own successes, get these celebrities outta here and do some quality work yourself developers! Yes, it was nice having Ellen Page and William Defoe in Beyond:Two Souls, but most of what carries that game is THEIR performances as actors, not the years of work on creating everything else.